Juneteenth To Be Celebrated With Two Days Of Events & New Monument For Black Whaling Captain

Nantucket will celebrate Juneteenth over the course of two days this year, with events planned for Friday and Saturday.

First, on Friday, the Nantucket Cemetery Commission will dedicate a new monument honoring whaling captain and civil rights advocate Absalom Boston and his wife, activist Hannah Cook Boston. The dedication will be held at 9:00 a.m., with a rain date the following day.

On Saturday, June 20th, a community celebration will be held at the historic African Meeting House on York Street. The celebration will include musical performances and food.

Despite their historical significance, neither Absalom Boston nor Hannah Cook Boston has a headstone, prompting the Cemetery Commission to install a monument in their honor.

Absalom Boston captained an entirely Black whaleship, the “Industry.” He also opened an inn on Nantucket, helped to create the African Meeting House, and engaged in other business ventures.

He is perhaps most notable for suing to force Nantucket to admit his daughter, Phebe, to the island’s public school, which did not accept Black students at the time. Boston’s suit came in the middle of a protracted battle over integrating the school system that began when another Black girl, Eunice Ross, was denied admission. The case made its way to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court before, under mounting legal and political pressure, Nantucket finally desegregated the island’s public school in 1846. Phebe Ann Boston was admitted, but shortly after, she passed away.

Absalom Boston’s wife, Hannah Cook Boston, supported the effort to desegregate the island’s schools and also helped to create the African Meeting House. She later worked as a stewardess aboard the steamship “Island Home.”

“The absence of a marker for two such important figures has long been noted by visitors and historians alike,” Cemetery Commission vice chair and prominent Nantucket historian Frances Karttunen said. “This monument ensures that future generations will have a place to reflect on and celebrate the remarkable contributions of Absalom and Hannah Boston.”

Absalom Boston will also be commemorated the following day, with Nantucket resident Neville Richen set to give a one-man portrayal of the mariner at the African Meeting House near the beginning of the day’s festivities.

Other performances will include drag queen SheSheFogo, local jazz staple E-Cliff, Nantucket band La Tulipe, and kids' music and movement with Cory Morgan. The celebration will run from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Juneteenth, a blending of “June” and “nineteenth,” celebrates the end of legal slavery for non-prisoners in the United States, marking the day Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas. Granger put the Emancipation Proclamation into effect in Texas, the last Confederate state to retain legal slavery. While it has been celebrated much longer, it was named a federal holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021.